James T. Cleland - "The Father of Two Lost Boys" (January 5, 1964)

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	(gentle music)	0:03
Preacher	On Thy altar, the fires of pure devotion	0:13
	may burn in our hearts.	0:17
	And that throughout this year and our lives,	0:19
	we may glorify Thee by our witness for Thy Son,	0:22
	our Lord Jesus Christ.	0:26
	In His name we pray, Amen.	0:29
	Let us pray.	1:01
	Let the words of my mouth	1:05
	and the meditations of our hearts	1:08
	be acceptable in Thy sight.	1:10
	Oh Lord are our strength and our Redeemer, Amen.	1:14
	Once upon a time, all the best stories start that way.	1:33
	Once upon a time, a series was begun	1:40
	from this pulpit on the parable of the prodigal son.	1:42
	Two sermons were preached, the first on the younger son,	1:48
	a lost boy, last January.	1:56
	And the second on his big brother, another lost boy,	2:02
	last March.	2:07
	Then there was a great silence due to misadventure.	2:11
	And today we recover the series	2:17
	and turn in the third place to the father	2:20
	of the two lost boys.	2:27
	Now more than one listener to the earlier sermons	2:32
	pointed out to me that somehow, somewhere	2:34
	they were deficient.	2:39
	That's probably true in more ways than one.	2:42
	But the primary defect was that the father was	2:47
	under-emphasized even de-emphasized,	2:51
	because of the close concentration	2:58
	on what was wrong with each of his sons.	3:01
	Now, though graphically portrayed in the story,	3:06
	the two boys are unimportant	3:10
	in contrast with their progenitor.	3:13
	Who are the central figures in the adjoined parables	3:20
	of the lost cheap and the lost coin?	3:26
	Are they not the shepherd who went after	3:31
	the wandering animal until he found it?	3:34
	And the woman who turned her house upside down	3:39
	until she laid hands on the missing piece of silver?	3:44
	Similarly, the leading character of the third parable	3:50
	is neither of the brothers, but the father.	3:55
	Who had a care for each of his wayward children.	4:02
	And so we must concentrate on the father in this sermon.	4:07
	You know the parable, a certain man had two sons.	4:14
	The younger claimed his right to a share of the inheritance,	4:21
	it was granted.	4:26
	He squandered it.	4:28
	He returned home to arousing reception	4:32
	and the unexpected party.	4:36
	The elder son refused to accept this turn of events.	4:40
	He would not even enter the house.	4:46
	His father tried to explain the reasons	4:50
	for the welcome.	4:53
	Silence surrounds the elder brother's reaction	4:57
	to the father's (indistinct).	5:02
	And so ends one of the loveliest stories in all literature.	5:05
	Now, what do we make of the father?	5:14
	He is quite a person.	5:20
	Is there any single adjective	5:23
	in which his character may be focused?	5:29
	There is, in Greek.	5:33
	It is teleios,	5:38
	T E L E I O S.	5:41
	A word translated, perfect in English.	5:45
	Teleios seeks to associate both an inner attitude	5:51
	and the resultant behavior.	5:57
	Teleios is used of one who is full grown,	6:01
	adult, mature.	6:06
	It describes an individual who has reached	6:10
	the proper height of virtue and integrity.	6:13
	It designates the kind of person	6:19
	one would like to have for a parent.	6:21
	The kind of person one would like to be as a parent.	6:26
	Now in the parable, the maturity and integrity	6:34
	are made evident in two scenes.	6:39
	The first is the understanding generosity	6:43
	which granted the younger son his demanding freedom.	6:48
	The lad wanted to escape the confines of his home	6:55
	and see world. Or why not?	7:00
	He would be young only once.	7:05
	And the father cooperated.	7:10
	The same understanding generosity	7:15
	is seen in the handling of his elder son	7:18
	when the young reprobate came back.	7:21
	Hearing that the stay at home was	7:25
	indignantly sulking outside.	7:29
	The father did not say, okay, let him stay,	7:33
	he'll come to his senses in time.	7:39
	No, the father went out	7:43
	and took the matter over with the angry affronted boy.	7:48
	The father was knowing,	7:55
	intelligent, sagacious.	7:58
	He understood rebellion in both its manifestations.	8:03
	He allowed it, he cooperated with it.	8:10
	Why? Because he was wise.	8:15
	He was foresighted, farsighted.	8:20
	He saw further than his boys.	8:26
	He knew his boys better than they knew themselves.	8:29
	The father's maturity is also revealed in compassion,	8:37
	in mercy.	8:43
	His full grown stature was of the heart	8:46
	as well as of the head.	8:50
	He could feel for them and with them,	8:54
	that is sympathy.	8:59
	He could identify himself with them,	9:03
	in their demands and in their attitudes,	9:07
	that is empathy.	9:11
	And therefore he was merciful to both of them.	9:14
	Or some of us say that the younger son	9:22
	should have been punished.	9:24
	He had been punished.	9:28
	Imagine a Jew, being a babysitter for pigs.	9:31
	Why be all hot and bothered about an inheritance squandered,	9:38
	when a son has been restored?	9:44
	This is the love which goes beyond justice to mercy	9:49
	in personal dealings.	9:55
	This is the love which redeems,	9:58
	because compassion in man to man relations	10:02
	is at the heart of it.	10:07
	And therefore, he ran to meet the prodigal	10:10
	and organized a party.	10:15
	But notice that he went out twice.	10:20
	He crossed the threshold a second time	10:27
	because the insulted, outraged,	10:34
	legally righteous brother	10:38
	fumed and fretted on the outside.	10:41
	The father never scolded him, he never berated him.	10:46
	Mercy,	10:53
	mercy,	10:56
	mercy.	10:59
	We are not told what the boys thought	11:02
	of their father's attitude.	11:05
	One may have considered him a simpleton.	11:09
	The other may have despised him as a fool.	11:15
	But the father had to behave in this fashion.	11:21
	Why? Because he had to be true to himself.	11:26
	To his integrated self,	11:33
	where the heart and the head were working in harmony.	11:37
	Now there's something latent throughout this parable	11:45
	which had better become patent.	11:48
	Now, the father represents God.	11:50
	The qualities of this unusual parent	12:01
	are the human manifestations of the character	12:05
	of Almighty God, whom Jesus called	12:08
	our Father who art in heaven.	12:11
	God is teleios,	12:18
	perfect.	12:22
	He is mature.	12:25
	He has an inner integrity which is marked by understanding	12:28
	and by generosity,	12:35
	and thanks be to God,	12:38
	by mercy.	12:42
	The parable of the prodigal son is basically a story	12:44
	of how God deals with men.	12:50
	Now this emphasis on understanding generosity and mercy	12:58
	was at the heart of all Jesus teaching about God.	13:02
	You recall this paragraph from the sermon on the Mount.	13:07
	You have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor	13:12
	and hate your enemy.	13:17
	But I say to you,	13:20
	love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.	13:23
	So that you may be sons of your Father,	13:30
	who is in heaven.	13:35
	For He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good,	13:37
	and send rain on the just and on the unjust.	13:41
	For if you salute only your brethren,	13:46
	what are you doing more than others?	13:50
	Do not even the Gentiles do the same?	13:53
	You therefore must be perfect,	13:58
	as your Heavenly Father is perfect.	14:03
	Do you grasp Jesus's staggering (indistinct)	14:09
	for man's inner character and output behavior?	14:13
	Your Heavenly Father is perfect, teleios.	14:16
	Therefore, you must be perfect, teleios.	14:21
	It's quite an order.	14:26
	But you ask me, did Jesus draw the correct conclusion	14:29
	from his meteorological observations?	14:35
	The fact that God indiscriminately sends	14:39
	sunshine and rain on the evil and on the good,	14:43
	may be a sign of his carelessness.	14:48
	His unconcern, rather than an indication of His mercy.	14:52
	Now, you have a point.	14:58
	The cosmos as we fathom it, is not just.	15:02
	In the sense of due reward in conformity with human right	15:09
	and human reason.	15:16
	The universe is either less than just,	15:18
	or more than just,	15:22
	so far as the individual is concerned.	15:25
	We may decide it is less than just,	15:28
	and accept or ignore an incomprehensible God.	15:33
	We may decide that there is not enough evidence to hand	15:40
	and live as resigned agnostics.	15:46
	We may decide with Jesus,	15:51
	that the divine equity has the quality of compassion,	15:54
	rather than the even handed justice of a legalistic	16:01
	tip for tat.	16:06
	We have freedom to vote for any of these conclusions.	16:09
	And yet, did Jesus base his conclusion	16:16
	about the mercy of God on the Palestinian weather?	16:21
	I do not think so.	16:27
	He used the sun and the rain	16:30
	to illustrate a point of view discovered elsewhere.	16:33
	Where? Where there was another passage	16:38
	from the sermon on the Mount, which suggests the source.	16:41
	What man of you, if his son asks him for a loaf	16:45
	will give him a stone?	16:50
	But if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?	16:53
	If you then who are evil,	16:59
	know how to give good gifts to your children,	17:02
	how much more will your Father who is in heaven,	17:06
	give good things to those who ask Him?	17:10
	Jesus's view of God	17:17
	was a deduction from his observation of men.	17:21
	If man who is imperfect,	17:28
	can behave with understanding and sympathy,	17:31
	will not God who is perfect do as well?	17:35
	You know, it makes one wonder	17:41
	what kind of a person Joseph was,	17:44
	if Jesus was so ready to use the word Father	17:50
	as his best description of God.	17:57
	You say this is anthropomorphism?	18:02
	God in the shape of man?	18:06
	Of course it is.	18:08
	What would you prefer?	18:11
	A metamorphism? God in the shape of a machine?	18:14
	Would that be superior to anthropomorphism?	18:20
	Or we may wish that, especially in university,	18:25
	that Jesus had spoken in abstract terms,	18:30
	like God is the ground of being.	18:34
	But Jesus was a Jew, not a Greek or a German.	18:39
	His language was therefore either practical or picturesque.	18:47
	It had to be when one thinks of His hearers.	18:54
	I don't believe that Jesus ever said, God is love.	18:58
	Though He believed it.	19:05
	He said, God is like a father.	19:09
	Like the father of the two prodigal sons.	19:16
	This is the language of religion not a philosophy,	19:24
	not of metaphysics,	19:27
	and it must be understood and valued on these terms.	19:29
	Now, if man is to be in vital relation with God	19:34
	as the son of a father,	19:38
	then God must grant him freedom.	19:41
	Even the freedom to rebel against God.	19:47
	The freedom to say no to God, the freedom to go wrong.	19:52
	That is a basic assumption of the Bible	20:00
	from beginning to end.	20:03
	It is seen in the garden of Eden,	20:06
	it is basic to the covenant conception in both testaments.	20:10
	Freedom is essential if man is to be a person	20:17
	and not a puppet.	20:22
	And Jesus view of God recognized it.	20:25
	But more than that, mercy is essential.	20:31
	So that man may be restored to son ship	20:38
	after forgetting to keep in touch with home,	20:44
	while in the far country.	20:49
	Or even being unable to realize that he is at home	20:53
	while living under the same roof as his Father God.	20:58
	Most of us want, need, hope for more than justice.	21:04
	Mercy is the blessed word,	21:12
	Jesus revealed that when he forgave the woman	21:14
	taken in adultery and the Peter who denied Him,	21:18
	and the dying thief on the cross.	21:23
	Jesus behaved as if He were the son of a Father God,	21:27
	maybe that's why we call Him the Son of God.	21:34
	And ever since, the church has invisibly linked	21:40
	God and Father.	21:45
	Listen to the prayers, Almighty God, our Heavenly Father.	21:48
	Listen to the Apostle's Creed,	21:55
	I believe in God, the Father Almighty.	21:57
	Listen to the second hymn we sang,	22:03
	oh my soul, bless God, the Father.	22:06
	Jesus has a indelibly etched the word Father	22:12
	into the Christian view of God.	22:18
	Now what does this mean for us	22:22
	who worship in a Christian Church,	22:25
	and voluntarily acknowledge God as Father?	22:30
	We will do well to remember that in his mature integrity,	22:35
	God has granted us freedom.	22:40
	Freedom to acknowledge his Fatherhood, freedom to reject it.	22:45
	He will not bully or brow-beat us into sanction.	22:52
	He will not send us to hell,	22:59
	but He will let us go to hell if we want to.	23:05
	He must, because he considers us persons and not puppets.	23:10
	Paul Tillich has said,	23:18
	"There are many forms of sin,	23:20
	but there is only one sin with a capital S,	23:25
	to separate ourselves from our ground of being,	23:30
	that is from the Father God.	23:36
	Yet, if we do separate ourselves but return saying,	23:41
	Father, I have sinned against heaven and Thy sight.	23:46
	He replies very simply, "My son, my daughter."	23:53
	And there is joy among the angels of heaven	24:01
	over one sinner who repented and also over the mercy of God.	24:04
	That is the good news of the parable.	24:12
	But there is something more we should remember,	24:17
	if we believe this,	24:22
	we are supposed to behave in like manner.	24:25
	Be ye therefore perfect,	24:32
	as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.	24:36
	We'll never make it.	24:41
	It's good to know that God judges by intent,	24:45
	as well as by result.	24:49
	The father in the parable expected his elder brother	24:53
	to accept the younger brother's desire for freedom.	24:57
	And also to show mercy when the beaten youngster returned.	25:01
	For it is not enough to expect freedom and mercy,	25:08
	we must allow freedom to others,	25:17
	and we must demonstrate mercy.	25:23
	Let me illustrate what such a demonstration can do.	25:28
	This story is not a parable, but an actual happening.	25:33
	A boy in Brooklyn ran away from home in his early teens.	25:39
	With a pal, he hitch-hiked to a small town in Delaware,	25:45
	where they asked for shelter overnight in a police station.	25:49
	The chief of police commented,	25:54
	"You kids look like a couple of runaways.	25:56
	You say you're from Brooklyn?	26:00
	I'll just telephone and see if there's a wanted on you."	26:03
	There was.	26:10
	He made contact with the boy's father	26:13
	and asked him if he wanted his son shipped home.	26:15
	Do you know the answer?	26:18
	Oh no.	26:21
	"He wants to find out something.	26:23
	He'll come home, when he's ready."	26:28
	These are the words of a man mature enough to grant freedom	26:34
	to a restless teenager.	26:42
	The boy came home two weeks later, apprehensive.	26:46
	Afraid he had hurt his father.	26:53
	Wondering if he could find the right words	26:57
	to explain why he had run away.	27:00
	I let the boy pick up the story in his own words.	27:05
	"As it turned out, it was Pop who found the right words.	27:08
	When I stepped in the front door,	27:14
	he looked up from his newspaper.	27:15
	And a wonderfully warm and relieved smile	27:18
	went over his face.	27:22
	Then he gave me a wink and said,	27:25
	there's food in the ice box, Danny.	27:28
	The words he had always greeted me with	27:32
	when I came home from school or play.	27:35
	So, nothing had changed between us.	27:40
	He understood me and my searchings and longings."	27:46
	The father was a man mature enough to grant mercy	27:54
	to a returning teenager.	28:01
	You probably never heard of the father.	28:03
	He was a Russian immigrant, a tailor.	28:06
	By the name of Jacob Kaminsky.	28:10
	But you know his son,	28:15
	Danny Kaye.	28:18
	Danny Kaye would say that Jacob Kaminsky was teleios,	28:22
	perfect.	28:31
	He called his father the happiest man.	28:33
	I'm glad that Jesus told the parable of the father	28:39
	of the two lost boys.	28:45
	I'm glad that Danny Kaye verified it.	28:49
	I'm glad that God is like a father.	28:55
	Now, can I be like Him?	29:01
	Amen. Let us pray.	29:12
	Almighty and eternal God	29:22
	who has revealed Thyself to us as our Father.	29:23
	Grant us all to be possessed by Thy understanding	29:29
	and Thy mercy.	29:32
	That we behave toward Thee and toward others	29:35
	as Thy sons and daughters,	29:40
	in the spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord.	29:43
	And grace be unto you and peace	29:47
	from God our Father through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	29:52

Item Info

Title:

James T. Cleland - "The Father of Two Lost Boys" (January 5, 1964)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r45b0330n

Date:

January 5, 1964

Speaker:

Cleland, James T. (James Tough), 1903-1974

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0251
ref5707_glc
uachapelsermaud
duke:628091
dcrau002255
ark:/87924/r45b0330n
1046bedc-1c71-47ac-93d6-5bdfc94b1a52

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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James T. Cleland - "The Father of Two Lost Boys" (January 5, 1964)

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1. James T. Cleland - "The Father of the Two Lost Boys" (January 5, 1964)

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James T. Cleland - "The Father of Two Lost Boys" (January 5, 1964)

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